I had a weird dream.
A dusky sunset glowed over the land filled with mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
A pillar of fire was rising up over the horizon like cigarette smoke, and sohow, the sun was black as well.
[Behold, this is what you have achieved.]
I looked around at the voice that ca from sowhere.
No matter where my gaze searched, I couldn’t find the source of the voice. My head buzzed as if soone was speaking directly into my ear.
[March, forward.]
My body moved automatically at the commanding tone.
I walked across the field slling of saltpeter. Bodies were piled up everywhere making the whole field look like a hill country.
The closer I got to the horizon, the closer I was to the pillar of fire. A burning heat could be felt in my body.
With each step, the number of bodies grew. They weren’t all from the sa race. Humans, elves, beastkin, Golden-Eyed... even Elentals.
The color of the sky gradually began to change. First it was black, then it turned bright red. Then soon it beca white, and then it returned to black. As a result, it was dark so you couldn’t see anything.
I was overwheld by the dark atmosphere like walking through alleys in the middle of the night without any streetlights. Feeling anxious, I turned around.
There were one, two, three buildings that were burned down.
A hundred, two hundred, three hundred....
Whether comrcial or residential, every building wobbled and collapsed like they’d been hit by a major earthquake. There weren’t any people but screams could be heard from everywhere. The roar didn’t feel noisy.
Rather, it was serene, deep like a symphony playing from a record player....
As I walked mindlessly for who-knows-how-long, I arrived at a familiar roadside. I traced my eyes along the road.
At the front gate of a university at the end of the street, a rusty sign was dangling by itself. There were faint letters on the crumbling headstone that looked like it’d seen better days.
Tilette.
[Your next mission is to show this.]
“.......”
With a gasp, I sprang upright.
When I woke up from that shitty dream, Lotte was watching with a helpless expression.
“Are you alright? You didn’t look fine the whole ti you were asleep....”
“It’s nothing. I just, had a little nightmare.”
As to not strain myself, I got up slowly.
My chest felt tight, and the area around my neck was sweating profusely like I’d been doing intense labor.
“Oh no.... Should we go to the hospital?”
“I’m fine.”
I gave Lotte a small smile.
I thought my headache would be gone after I slept, but it was still pulsing.
The only consolation was that it was better than yesterday, at least. I had felt so dizzy last night before falling asleep that I hadn’t wanted to think about anything.
“It might just be body aches.”
“Then you’re not fine!”
Lotte hurriedly put on an outer.
“Wait here, I’ll get so dicine from Dr. Sephia.”
She then slamd out the door. It was like she was my mom.
“Here, I brought it!”
Lotte returned quickly after taking off and held out a bag of dicine.
The colorful pills were stuck together in the thin bag. They looked like the cold dicine prescribed by your local physician.
“You didn’t have to.”
I almost sighed from gratitude. Lotte was the first person I t who took care of little things like this.
“Thank you.”
“No problem.”
For so reason, it felt like my headache was receding just from looking at the bag.
“Let’s see. She said to take it thirty minutes after a al three tis a day.”
Grooowl.
My starving stomach scread at the ntion of food.
“Co to think of it.... I didn’t eat anything after coming back.”
I’d used a lot of energy but hadn’t replenished any of it. The only thing I’d had was a few sips of water. So basically, I hadn’t consud anything besides minerals and water.
I was hungry. I was going to die of starvation, to exaggerate a bit.
“Would the cafeteria be open at this ti?”
“It’s after noon right now.”
“What...?”
Unable to hide my shock, I covered my mouth with one hand.
That was how much I slept? , who slept an average of three hours a night?
“I was going to study at the library in the morning....”
In order to get back to my world, my plan had been to learn one new magic theory a day. This was the first ti I didn’t do that.
“You haven’t looked well since yesterday. So the library? Forget it. Let’s not do anything else and just rest this weekend.”
“But I have lots to do....”
I had to study magic, make progress on the hydrogen bomb research, check where Verl was, and miniaturize Flare.
This was reminding of the days when I’d be drowning in assignnts. Yeah, let’s not think that far because it felt like blood was rushing to my head.
First, we got to the cafeteria to grab sothing to eat.
Because of the convenience of magic, there was sothing like a kiosk where you could purchase food tickets. Of course, it didn’t run on electricity.
As I inserted two gold coins and waited, the sound of clicking and turning could be heard from within.
“Anyway, why is the food so pricey? Two silvers for a soup, are you serious?”
“You know that’s how things are lately. Father was saying that the country’s finances have run out after the plague.”
I had already experienced the capital’s murderous inflation ti and ti again.
Only a couple weeks ago, what you could buy for a bronze coin cost a silver, and now it was at a point where you couldn’t even buy it with gold.
At least with necessities like food, the school was taking the losses and paying for part of it, but it was still too expensive so the students weren’t coming to the cafeteria nearly as often.
It was only to this extent for us because Lotte ca from a rich family and I was at this school thanks to my connections with the chairman. Ordinary folk were dying from these murderous prices.
“Is the palace not doing anything?”
“They’re saying that Duke Argana made an appeal to reform the currency. I’m not sure yet if it’ll work out.”
“That would an....”
“If they implent a currency reform, then the golds and silvers can be changed to sothing else. Like the bills that elves use, for example.”
“That would be the easiest.”
I knew jack about economics so I just accepted it. I wasn’t sure if it was going to work, but since Duke Argana was on the sa side as the chairman, I could only hope that there wouldn’t be any issues.
... If things went wrong, then would everyone in the parliantary party lose their heads like Verl had said?
Well, I could look into it tomorrow afternoon. I had a vague idea of where that elf went.
I leapt forward when I heard that the food was ready. Lotte and I filled our trays with warm soup, bread, and a piece of steak, then returned to our seats.
With the price being what it was, there weren’t many students who were coming here to eat. I heard that nowadays, most of them were just buying the ingredients and cooking their own food, nobles and commoners alike.
“It feels empty; it used to be a little more crowded.”
First sester, that is before the Black Death had occurred, it had been difficult to set foot inside the cafeteria.
“Ah, what a sha. It would’ve been better to save this money and use it for research.”
“You can’t be stingy with food. You should eat well in tis like these.”
Ah, I was going to cry. Even my parents never told sothing like this.
I rembered when I first ca here and ate together with Lotte. The texture of the croissant I’d bit into instead of a dry, rye bread was still vivid in my mind. Really, I had thought at the ti that my tongue was lting with the sugar.
And the soup. It seed only yesterday that I’d spilled tears of sorrow as I scooped the beef stew topped with parsley and mushrooms instead of watered down corn soup.
Now that kind of al was the norm. I made it all the way here. Twice, even.
I briefly fell into thought. Eyes closed, I tossed so stir-fried beans into my mouth and gently wiggled my fork.
“Lotte.”
“Yes?”
My friend answered innocently.
“You know how you can apply for the exchange program to Iliad Academy.”
“What about it?”
“What if you apply for it?”
Lotte tilted her head in puzzlent.
“Why all of a sudden?”
“Because I think you could learn a lot over there.”
“But we were going to do a lot of things together this sester. When are we going to start on the new magic developnt that we promised Father?”
Chairman Robespierre wasn’t my only sponsor.
Count Saliere, who had been independently studying the use of uranium ores, had asked to collaborate with Lotte. It was a part of nuclear weapon research so I had to do it in order to defeat the Demon King anyway.
─ Listen carefully. If we don’t take down the Demon King, neither of us can go back to Earth. That’s the Main Quest.
... If only he hadn’t said that, I would’ve put it off.
“Thanks for the food.”
I took my lighter tray to the return area. After quenching my thirst with filtered water, I attempted to go to the library despite Lotte’s protests.
“Seriously, just rest until you get better!”
“If you do sothing for .”
“What is it.”
“Apply for the exchange program that I just talked about.”
“Huu, I said alright. So I should expect us to start proper research after winter break, right?”
“Nope.”
When I shook my head, Lotte blinked like she was asking ‘then what?’.
“We finish it before you go.”
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